Trade Up New Mexico is an industry-supported initiative that is striving to connect young people entering the workforce with information, opportunities, resources, and employers in New Mexico.
New Mexico is booming with construction-related opportunities. And because the state’s skilled work force in commercial construction is aging, construction firms are paying premium wages to attract and keep laborers on projects. Trade Up is striving to attract young people who enjoy doing skilled physical tasks and using their creative and problem-solving skills into the construction trades workforce.
Three associations and unions that will be impacted by the workforce crisis include the New Mexico Sheet Metal Contractors Association/Sheet Metal Workers Local Union 49, Mechanical Contractors Association of New Mexico/Plumbers & Pipefitters Union Local 412, and the National Electrical Contractors Association of New Mexico/International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 611. The three groups have created the Mechanical Electrical Sheet Metal Contractors Association (MESA).
